This species ranges from San Blas on the eastern side of the isthmus of Darién in Panama, south through the Pacific lowlands of western Colombia, probably at least as far as northern Valle del Cauca Department. It certainly occurs at low altitudes, and probably ranges up to medium altitudes, although details on its altitudinal range are lacking.

Habitat and Ecology

There is no information concerning its habitat and ecological preferences, though it is presumably subterranean, living in primary forest and probably also secondary forest.

Population

There is no information on the population status of this species.

Population Trend

Unknown

Major Threats

Deforestation as a result of expanding agriculture is a potential threa to this species, but there is not enough information available to confirm this.

Conservation Actions

It is not known from any protected areas, though it is likely to occur in some. It is in need of taxonomic review (Wilkinson pers. comm.).

Taxonomic Notes

The taxonomic status of this species is unclear. It was removed from the synonymy of Caecilia tentaculata by Savage and Wake (2001). In this account, we provisionally assign all of Lynch's (1999) Pacific records of C. tentaculata to C. isthmica. However, Savage and Wake (2001) do not cite Lynch (1999), and they did not examine the more extensive Colombian material studied by Lynch. This means that they place C. isthmica in Colombia based only on Dunn's (1942) record. However, Lynch (1999) reports that none of the Colombian specimens that he examined matches Dunn's (1942) description, and, further, that he suspects that C. guntheri and the Pacific C. tentaculata (= C. isthmica sensu Savage and Wake 2001) might be conspecific. If this is the case, C. isthmica would be the valid name.